When students in the Eureka Springs School District return to class on Monday, Aug. 14, they’ll only need to take an empty clear backpack.
The contents will once again be waiting for them.
Superintendent Bryan Pruitt said the district has continued the annual tradition of budgeting for the purchase of school supplies for all students.
“We did it when I first came to Eureka and I’m starting my ninth year,” Pruitt said. “We just do it every year and I don’t even need board approval.”
Pruitt said approximately $21,000 is budgeted for the supplies.
“We do about $7,000 per building,” he said. “We go through the school lists and order a bunch from Walmart, from Amazon, wherever we can get the cheapest cost. Then we’ll just have them shipped or we’ll go pick up at Walmart.
“We’ll have them out and ready for the first day.”
Supplies provided include items such as pencils, paper, protractors, crayons and markers, Pruitt said.
“It’s a great thing,” he said. “It’s a great cost-saving thing for our community and a way to give back. We’re fortunate that we have the funds and the capabilities to be able to do it.”
Pruitt said he frequently gets feedback from families on the program.
“Our parents are very appreciative,” he said. “We try to put it on our website and our app to let everyone know not to go to Walmart looking for a list because there won’t be one there.
“We take care of it all.”
DISTRICT PROJECTS Pruitt said the district has hit a small hurdle in the construction of a new elementary and middle school cafeteria.
“We’ve kind of hit a standstill,” he said. “The fire marshal was not comfortable with the trench they were going to move our power lines and utilities to. We’re going to move the water, gas, electric and sewer and they had a trench designed and I don’t think the fire marshal was real happy about it.
“So, we’re working through him to make sure we’ve got something he feels comfortable with. Once he approves they will be back on [the project] again.”
Projects that are underway or near completion in the district include new flooring in the middle school, new electronic, key-fob accessible door locks on campus buildings and new flooring the the band room.
“We’re getting a lot of stuff done this summer and those are proceeding nicely,” Pruitt said. “We’re excited about that.”
QUICK BOARD MEETING It only took 16 minutes for the school board to conduct its regular meeting on Monday, July 10.
The main topic was approving the transfer of $750,000 from the main district account to the building fund account to stay within state-required guidelines, Pruitt said.
“Our net revenue has to be at 20 percent,” he said. “So, we transferred $750,000 into our building fund so we can be at that 20 percent.
“The theory behind [the regulation] is that you spend the money on education and on the kids. So at the end of the year, that revenue has to be down to 20 percent. If we’re over on that, then we can dump it into our building fund and use it for building projects.”
Pruitt said if a district is over the 20 percent revenue threshold then that overage has to be put into a tracked account.
“They track it to see if you’re not spending it right,” he said. “But if you go ahead and move it into your building fund then you can use it for any building projects.”
The money approved to go into the building fund will be used to help fund the new elementary and middle school cafeteria project, Pruitt said.
“We’re glad that we had some money to be able to move over,” he said.
In other board approvals, a miscellaneous duty salary schedule was approved. Included in that schedule was $103 per day pay for substitute teachers, $155 per day for non-licensed substitutes in a longterm teaching assignment, $208 per day for a licensed substitute in a long-term assignment of 10 days or more and $80 per day for a substitute bus driver.
In personnel approvals, the board approved the position resignations of James Mc-Vay, Wendy Wheeler, Glen Brownlee, Becky Stoppel and LaDonna Padgett.
Hires approved were Deivi Coon as a special education teacher, Brownlee as a custodian, Kelly Otterman as a bus driver and Padgett, Tracy Trottier and Pricila Tapia as paraprofessionals.
